Increasing truck traffic is one of the big topics of discussion in the Eagle ford Shale region. (Tom Reel/Express-News)

The six rural counties where Texas plans to turn paved road to gravel have 114 drilling rigs working this week.

It’s an enormous amount of drilling activity. By comparison, Louisiana, one of the most active states for oil and gas exploration, has 113 drilling rigs.

There are more rigs hunting oil and gas in those six Texas counties – four in the Eagle Ford Shale and two in the Permian Basin – than all other states but North Dakota (168 rigs) and Oklahoma (164 rigs), according to the latest Baker Hughes rig count.

Those counties also produced more than 36 million barrels of crude oil in the first six months of the year, according to Texas Railroad Commission records.

The Texas Department of Transporation says it does not have the funding to repave several Farm-to-Market roads in the rural counties, which have been heavily damaged by oil field traffic.

About 66 miles of paved roads in Dimmit, La Salle, Live Oak and Zavala counties in South Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale region would become gravel, under the plans.

In West Texas, in Culberson and Reeves counties, 17.3 paved miles would go to gravel.

TxDOT says it is safer to convert the roads to gravel because it will slow down the traffic.

The plan has created an uproar in South Texas, which has been hammered by oil field traffic and is in the middle of its biggest-ever economic boom.

The state said it won’t offer more money for roads but is open to alternatives to gravel. County officials have until the end of October to come up with a plan.

Based on Baker Hughes and Texas Railroad Commission data, here’s a breakdown of the drilling rigs this week and the crude oil production between January and June in each county where gravel roads are planned:

Live Oak County Judge Jim Huff said he knows that TxDOT didn’t receive the funding it requested from the state Legislature. But he said the perception in Texas is that the urban areas of the state are benefitting to the detriment of rural Texas.

“As a resident and a landowner and a mineral owner, why are the taxes being paid to a much larger sum than ever before but yet primary infrastructure such as our roads are going to something less than it was before?” Huff asked at a public meeting in Cotulla this week. “That’s what the public perceives. That’s what we think. We’re sending money up there and we’re getting nothing back.”